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Industrial Robot Arm Becomes Giant Catapult

Posted by Soulskill on from the excellent-gift-ideas dept.

wintersynth brings us a story about a group of enthusiasts who made a catapult out of a 2,800lb industrial robot arm. They used it to launch bowling balls, fireballs, and cans of beer toward a stationary target, and they controlled the catapult's aim with a graphical UI on a laptop. "I wanted to be able to control the rotation of the robot so we could aim the robot from the laptop, but I quickly realized that since the desert is so flat, we could do some basic ranging on the target too. I also wanted the targeting to be overlaid in 3d over a photograph of the target area. The software needed to control the robot like an MMO or RTS game. I suspect that video games, in general, have some of the most optimal control interfaces. I wanted to try a control scheme similar to the area effect spell targeting in World of Warcraft."

6 of 149 comments (clear)

  1. Does it catapult everything? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    Like niggers?

    1. Re:Does it catapult everything? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait

      I'm a bit perplexed by your phrasing...

      Are you asking if it has universal-catapulting capability (allowing to to hurl any object, niggers inclusive) or if it catapults everything, in the manner that niggers do?

      As niggers are well-known for their spear-catapulting ability, this ambiguity needs clarification.

  2. Tall ones? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    N N N N
      I I I I
      G G G G
      G G G G
      E E E E
      R R R R

  3. Re:HD Camera by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    I mean seriously, it had all sorts of proprietary software with weird codecs so that the footage was extremely difficult to transcode at high resolution.
    And this is Fry's fault? Fry's Problem? No, it's yours. You picked the camera out, you "bought" it.

    I hope it is at least a mitigating factor.
    No, it's not.

    I give Fry's tons of (non-"rented") business
    So fucking what? You're a jerk. Fuck tard.
  4. Re:HD Camera by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Flamebait

    And his screen name ia stupid, too. I mean, look at them: A bunch of rich emo trust fund kiddies. Good grief.

  5. Re:ATTENTION MODS by ricree · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    (-1+1: funny flamebait)